The Marks of the Flood

Many geologists (scientists who study rocks) say that things happen now just like they happened in the past—an idea known as uniformitarianism [YOU-ni-FOR-muh-TARE-ee-uh-niz-um]. They say that “the present is the key to the past.” Here is how this idea works. Suppose that you turned on your water hose in the backyard. The water from the hose begins to erode a small channel through the mud. If you measured how much mud it eroded per minute, then you could calculate how long the water had been running. For instance, if the water eroded one inch of mud every minute, and the channel that was cut through the mud was 20 inches deep, then according to the idea of uniformitarianism, the hose would have been on for 20 minutes. This idea works well to measure some things, but it also has many problems when measuring other things.

For instance, suppose you walk into a yard that has a 30-inch channel running through it, with water from a hose that is eroding the soil at an inch a minute. You would probably assume the water hose had been running for 30 minutes. You decide to ask the owner of the yard, so you knock on the door. The owner of the yard informs you that firemen had just come by and used their big hose in his yard. It took them two minutes to erode the channel with their great big hose. He also told you that he had only been running his hose for one minute. You see, the problem with the idea of uniformitarianism is that many things happened in the past that are not still happening. The Flood of Noah is a good example of an event that would have caused major miscalculations for those who try to use the idea of uniformitarianism.

Some evolutionists say the little river (called the Colorado River) at the bottom of the Grand Canyon slowly, over millions of years, cut and carved that huge canyon. They say that it took a massive amount of water to form the canyon, and they do not know where else the water could have come from, except that little river. But the Bible tells us that there once was an enormous amount of water that poured down and covered the entire Earth: the Flood of Noah. It not only filled the valleys and plains, but also covered every mountain—even the tallest ones of Noah’s day. When the Flood was over, God made the waters recede, and a lot of water was being moved around. This is the amount of water that the scientists say would have been able to carve such a huge hole. So, most likely, the Flood God sent upon the Earth “carved” much of what we know as the Grand Canyon.

Today, we have seen how a large flood can carve out a canyon like the Grand Canyon. On May 18, 1980, the Mount St. Helens volcano erupted. The effects of Mount St. Helens’ eruption have cast serious doubt on the long-held theory that the Grand Canyon must have been slowly carved over millions of years. On March 19, 1982, a small eruption around the summit of Mount St. Helens caused a mudflow that was 20 miles long. The flow quickly cut a canyon that was 140 feet deep. The canyon produced by the mudflow has been called “The Little Grand Canyon.” It got its name because it appears to be a one-fortieth scale model of the Grand Canyon.

Think about this: If the eruption of Mount St. Helens caused a canyon 1/40th the size of the Grand Canyon to form in one day, then what would a person expect to happen when the “fountains of the deep” were broken up and the entire world was covered by water (as in Noah’s Flood)? Surely, the evidence from Mount St. Helens shows that a huge flood could have caused the Grand Canyon.

In addition, scientists recently discovered that the island of Britain was formed by a huge flood. In fact, these scientists tell us that it was the biggest flood that any scientist has ever studied. They believe that the megaflood which caused Britain released 35 million cubic feet of water per second, which is 100 times greater than the water that the Mississippi River discharges. (A man named Thomas Wagner wrote about this flood in an article titled “Study: Flooding Left Britain an Island.”) The Flood of Noah’s day would have been a huge flood that could easily have caused the island of Britain.

After looking at all the evidence, we can see that the Flood recorded in Genesis happened. It is not a myth or an untrue legend. It was a worldwide catastrophe that caused many of the geologic formations we see today. It should also remind us that God is in control.

*Please keep in mind that Discovery articles are written for 3rd-6th graders.

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